Queen of Hollywood
by Heavenly Pearl
Summary: Minako's mother has a secret obsession: a love for tabloids. It's a love she uses to feel a part of her daughter's life after Minako runs off to Hollywood to become a star, but sometimes things are not always as the seem.


Queen of Hollywood

Chiyo Aino had an addiction.

An addiction to celebrity magazines.

She never admitted her addiction to anyone, not even her own husband. They had been married for over twenty years, and the poor fool had no idea she spent several thousand yen a month on tabloids. She hid her magazines like a man hid his porn collection, choosing well-out-of-sight places that only a career homemaker like herself knew about so nobody would ever discover her secret shame.

After all, Chiyo had an image to protect. Oh, how Minako would laugh if she ever knew her mother -- the same mother who did everything possible to discourage her only daughter from pursuing a career in the cruel and uncertain world of show business -- had an obsession with idols and celebrities that rivaled her own! Even now, with Minako living halfway across the world as an up-and-coming starlet in Hollywood, Chiyo couldn't bring herself to admit her secret hobby, although every week she eagerly combed through her precious magazines, cutting out each and every picture or article that mentioned her daughter in even the briefest way.

It was the only Chiyo could still feel like a part of Minako's life. They had not parted on the best of terms when Minako announced two years ago that she was dropping out of college and moving to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a movie star. At the time, Chiyo had thought the plan was nothing but a pipe dream. Her daughter was certainly talented, but acting was not the most stable of careers. Only a lucky few made it to the big time; the rest struggled to keep food on the table and pay the rent on time. Chiyo had wanted Minako to at least finish with her university studies first so she would have something to fall back on if her acting career didn't pan out, but, as usual, Minako hadn't listened and ran off to America without even a good-bye to her parents.

Chiyo sighed as she flipped through one of the magazines, remembering the one letter Minako had sent to them, a couple of weeks after she had left. In it, she had given them her contact information, but Chiyo never called or wrote back, still too angered by her daughter's decision to talk to her. By the time she learned Minako had won a role on a top-rated American cable show, it had been too late for Chiyo to apologize for her lack of faith and congratulate her. Minako had already moved out of her old apartment and changed her cell-phone number, permanently cutting Chiyo and her father out of her life.

Thus, Chiyo's addiction became even bigger, for it was the only way to know what was going on in her daughter's life. And what a life it was! Not only was Minako -- now using the Americanized name Mina Aino -- a huge TV star, she had also finished filming her first movie, which was expected to be a huge summer blockbuster, and was in the middle of recording her first album. She had also just moved in with Jake Daniels, one of the hottest men in Hollywood and her co-star in the movie. Their romance was headline news on all the major tabloids, even the Japanese magazines. Evidently, Jake had already had a girlfriend when he fell in love with Minako on the set of their movie, but Chiyo chose not to believe some of the more salacious rumors about their affair. She knew her daughter well enough to know that Minako would never knowingly steal another woman's man. She loved her tabloids, but Chiyo knew it wasn't wise to believe everything she read.

In fact, she laughed aloud when she finished looking through one magazine and picked up another, which asked the question, _Is Mina Aino Eating for Two? _in big yellow letters on the cover, accompanied by a somewhat unflattering photograph of Minako wearing a fashionable baby-doll dress and straw hat as she walked out of an L.A. McDonald's, carrying a bag of take-out. Chiyo rolled her eyes, but still cut the picture out anyway, adding it to the stack she had started.

"They think every actress with a little skin on her bones is pregnant," she muttered, shaking her head. At least her daughter liked to eat, unlike some actresses she could name. Thank goodness Minako prized her health over Hollywood's unrealistic standard of beauty. She was beautiful and sexy just the way she was.

_A little too sexy, sometimes_, Chiyo thought with a frown as she turned to the _Week's Best Dressed_ page and saw a picture of Minako in a blue sequined gown with a plunging neckline down to her navel. One false move in a dress like that, and she would have flashed the photographers. Still, Chiyo thought the dress was rather modest compared to the skimpy outfits and lingerie her bed-hopping character wore on her TV show.

Again, she clipped.

An article on Minako's beauty regimen.

She clipped.

A photo spread of Minako's and Jake's love nest.

She clipped.

A glowing review of Minako's TV show, especially of Minako's performance as Asian vixen Erika Yamaguchi.

She clipped.

An in-depth Mina Aino interview in _Cosmo_.

She clipped.

An article about Jake Daniels in which he called Mina a "goddess of love".

She clipped.

A swimsuit spread featuring Minako.

She clipped.

Soon, Chiyo was on her last magazine. The stack of photos and articles on the coffee table reached almost half an inch, which she would stash away in the secret, locked box underneath her bed with all the others, away from prying eyes. Just as she was about to start reading the final magazine, though, Chiyo heard a car pull up in the driveway.

Her husband was home from work.

Quickly, she hid the cut-outs underneath one of the couch cushions, then gathered up all her magazines, including the one she had not read, and tossed them in the paper recycling bin in the kitchen, careful to hide them underneath her husband's morning newspaper. By the time her husband walked through the front door and called out he was home, Chiyo had thrown her apron back on and had begun preparing dinner like a proper housewife.

In the recycle bin, underneath the morning newspaper, the last magazine remained unread.

The headine?

_Jake Daniels Arrested for Domestic Abuse_.

Maybe Mina Aino's life wasn't so glamorous after all.

DISCLAIMER: _Sailor Moon_ is the property of Takeuchi Naoko.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was written for the sm_monthly community at Livejournal (Theme: Hat) and was the winner of Best General and Best Overall for August 2007. Inspired by the Corrs' song, _Queen of Hollywood._


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